Old Eyes
by theforgetfulalchemist
Summary: One night during guard duty on the Argo, Hazel has a talk with a boy with a blue arrow tattoo, a strange monkey, and eyes as old as hers.


Hazel paced the deck of the Argo alone, her hands drumming on her _spatha_ in the warm Greek air.

She couldn't wait for Leo to relieve her on the guard shift. By herself in the silent evening she couldn't help having the sinking feeling it was only a matter of time before a monster attack, maybe some Roman eagles, or griffons or pegasi or…

"Ooof!"

Or whatever _that_ was.

_Oh great._ Hazel thought darkly.

From the sound of it a _person_ had invaded their ship.

"Momo! Shh! We don't want to wake anyone!" Hissed a voice.

Yeah, definitely human.

Funny, though. It sounded like a young boy.

Regardless, Hazel crept in the shadows toward the sound, raising her sword. Silently, she stalked to a corner where she saw the silhouette of a person holding a squirming animal.

She counted to three in her head before jumping out quickly, poised to stab the intruder.

Her arm stopped dead in its tracks when she saw the mysterious person.

It was a boy maybe a year younger than herself, a strange blue arrow tattoo on his bald head and wearing some sort of monk's robe. He was clutching an animal that looked like a monkey.

He yelped and tried to protect his creature from Hazel.

She lowered her sword and looked at him quizzically as he breathed hard and wheezed from shock.

"Geez!" he complained. "What'd you do that for?"

"Well you did stow away on my ship." Hazel pointed out.

"Oh. Right." The boy agreed sheepishly, blushing and rubbing his neck. His pet scampered up his arm to rest on his shiny tattooed head. 'Sorry about that. I meant to go…somewhere else. We'll be leaving now."

He took a walking stick he had been carrying and gave it a shake. The sides unfurled into glider wings. He rushed to the edge of the ship and made like he was about to jump off before Hazel stopped him.

"Wait!" She said. "Who are you?"

She didn't quite believe he was there by mistake. Enemies could disguise themselves as just about anything, even little boys.

He beamed.

"I'm Aang!" He said cheerfully, spinning his glider so that it turned back into a walking stick and sitting cross legged on the Argo's railing. "And this is Momo. What's your name? How old are you? What's this place? Do you live on this ship?" He gasped excitedly "Is this a pirate ship? Pirates are cool!"

Hazel's head swam.

"Uh, no, I'm not a pirate. My name's Hazel."

Aang grinned.

"That's a pretty name."

"And I'm…thirteen."

She thought it was better not to go into the technically-being-over-seventy thing.

Aang's friendly smile froze into a grimace.

"But you weren't born thirteen years ago."

Hazel's heart almost stopped.

"How…how did you…"

"It's okay." Aang said, scratching Momo behind the ears. "I'm the same way."

"You…you are?"

Aang nodded and it seemed like an ancient gesture with the sadness in his deep eyes.

"I was frozen in a block of ice. I was there for a hundred whole years before my friends got me out. They really helped me adjust, but…"

"But it's still hard." Hazel finished. She found herself sitting on the deck in front of him.

Aang nodded again solemnly.

"You understand. Everyone's gone."

"Everything's different." Hazel added.

"Nobody looks or acts the same. Most days I feel just…turned around."

"How did you know I was the same as you?" Hazel asked again.

"Your eyes." He said simply. "You have nice eyes. But they're…old. Like mine. My friend Katara always tells me that."

It was true. His eyes were _not _the eyes of a twelve year old.

"We're traveling together." Aang continued. He gasped again. "Are you on an adventure with your friends to?"

It was more a suicide mission than an adventure but Hazel said

"Yeah. Kind of."

She smiled fondly.

"They've helped me a lot to. It's…complicated, but for a while I had to pretend I wasn't from a different time."

"I had to help stop a war." Aang offered casually.

_**Much**__ too long a story to get into_ Hazel decided.

"But I lost the monk who raised me. I woke up and he was…gone" Aang confided, breaking on the word "gone" like he didn't want to say "dead".

"…I lost my mom." Hazel told him. "And…"

_And Sammy. _

"…well, anyway, if it wasn't for them, I don't know what'd I'd do, especially Frank."

Aang smiled playfully.

"Is that your boyfriend?" He asked teasingly.

Hazel blushed.

"Yes." She mumbled.

Instead of ribbing her about Frank, Aang looked up at the stars wistfully.

"That must be nice." He said finally. "I wish I had a girlfriend. Someone told me love's hard when you're young but it gets better."

"I hope he's right." Hazel said.

"That's what I said too." Aang laughed.

Maybe that was all they needed. Time. And then being in an era that wasn't theirs wouldn't be so hard.

"I _really_ hope he's right." Hazel admitted.

Aang's eyes gleamed and he smiled.

Suddenly he looked up and stood on the railing. Footsteps were coming up from the cabins below decks and there was a fire glowing that illuminated a figure coming up the stairs.

"Looks like your friends are up." Aang said. "Momo and I better go. Nice meeting you, Hazel!"

He rose to jump off the railing.

"Wait a second!" Hazel pleaded, getting up off the ground. "Where were you heading?"

"A place called the Spirit World." Aang answered. "Guess I kinda got lost."

He waved and leaped off, free falling. He shot upwards with his glider out, quickly soaring out of sight.

"Bye, pretty girl!" He called, his voice floating down to her as a whisper on the wind.

She was staring up at where he disappeared when Leo came up behind her yawning.

"Hi, Hazel. Relieving you and all that good stuff. Hey, what were you doing?"

He craned his neck to pear up at where Hazel was gazing.

"Oh, nothing." She said, walking past him to get some sleep in her room. "Just having a talk with a boy and his monkey."

_A/N: I can't have two of my favorite characters in similar situations and not write a crossover about it! Hope you liked it and please let me know what you think!_


End file.
